New Zealand Vintage Computer Forums

The post on the Commodore 65 got me thinking about what might be the most valuable item in my own collection. Actually, I have no idea as I don't generally collect them with resale value in mind. None of them get even CLOSE to $20,000 though.

I'm not sure if there are any I would get a four digit number for. Maybe the Lisa 2 or perhaps even the IBM PC as they are both in excellent condition. Getting close to that might be the PET and the Sorcerer. There will be a few there in the high hundreds. Who actually knows until they go to market though! Vintage computer pricing is a fickle thing. I should think about insuring them all separately though as replacement wouldn't be easy.

What's your most valuable piece of hardware?

I doubt any of mine would make it to four figures either.

- Boxed mint ZX81 kitset - as shiny as the day it rolled out of the factory door;
- Sinclair ZX80, excellent working condition;
- As a set, my complete collection of all 10 ZX Spectrum ROM cartridges;
- Any old Apple computer, no matter how crappy. Excellent condition IIgs ROM.3? ][plus? Mac 512Ke? LCIII with //e card installed? Who cares, they're worth MILLIONS!! L@@K! R@RE! Steve Jobs!

lizardb0y wrote:Any old Apple computer, no matter how crappy. Excellent condition IIgs ROM.3? ][plus? Mac 512Ke? LCIII with //e card installed? Who cares, they're worth MILLIONS!! L@@K! R@RE! Steve Jobs!

LOL! Unfortunately you do see that kind of sentiment in some sellers listings

My collection would be really hard to eyeball. There's no real rarities, so the only things of actual value would be my CDTV or the CD32s. Maybe my Amiga 1200... but then again, the 1200 model survived the C= bankruptcy, the Escom bankruptcy...

My problem is that I collect computers that have something of a sentimental attachment, and my family and friends could never afford anything exotic - so it's mostly Commodore gear

most would be under $50 not sure about some of the software though, seems to go higher than the computer value some times

Carcenomy wrote:My problem is that I collect computers that have something of a sentimental attachment, and my family and friends could never afford anything exotic - so it's mostly Commodore gear

I'd hardly call that a problem - that's what got me into this mess too

While I have picked up a few things that I felt were just cool, almost all of them were acquired because of some sentimental reason. There is a certain obsessive "have to collect the whole set" aspect to it as well, but I try not to let that get out of control.

The Mac Plus was not a notable computer in my eyes, but I have one of the Macintosh Plus computers from the Otago University Computer Science department that I may well have done stage 1 computing on. It still has the paper "CSC" (Computing Services Centre) sticker on it, and I'm not retr0briteing that machine for anyone!

tezza wrote:The post on the Commodore 65 got me thinking <snip> What's your most valuable piece of hardware?

Well, it depends... There's what I PAID for them, and what they might actually sell for in NZ. (versus international Ebay)

The 1978 Apple II cost me about NZ$3k all up, by the time it landed here with the "grab, snatch and take" paid. (Still bitter about the idiot seller refusing to ship to a USA address.) I suspect it wouldn't fetch much in NZ, but given recent sales in the USA it stands the best chance of recouping it's purchase price. (In comparison to the US$5k 1979 Apple II, mine's earlier and with a low serial number, but the one that went for US$5k had the original keyboard, whereas mine's had a replacement.)

The one I probably OVERPAID for was the ROM03 IIgs from Aussie, which ended up being in the vicinity of NZ$1400 by the time I got it here... Stupid in retrospect. I got egotistical and and paid too much. It is absolutely pristine however, and has a WORKING (matching) RGB monitor, but I suspect it'd only go for two or three hundred here. (And we won't even go into what the "zip gs" accelerator cost )

The interesting question would be what people consider to be the bargain in their collection (not always the cheapest).. For me, it may eventually turn out to be the Mac LC4/75 ($10)

lizardb0y wrote:Any old Apple computer, no matter how crappy. Excellent condition IIgs ROM.3? ][plus? Mac 512Ke? LCIII with //e card installed? Who cares, they're worth MILLIONS!! L@@K! R@RE! Steve Jobs!

Indeed, there's a few scalpers ("vintagecomputermuseum" springs to mind.) out there trying it on. I watched the market for nearly 2 years before I came to the conclusion I wasn't going to get a bargain, and bought the 1978 Apple II.

WelshWizard wrote:most would be under $50 not sure about some of the software though, seems to go higher than the computer value some times

That raises another point. When considering resale value, shipping is a consideration. Small, light items (like rare software cartridges or a ZX80) might be more of an investment than a huge heavy computer. Small items you can put on e-bay and sell to an international market. It's not much to ship. On the other hand a backbreaker like an Apple Lisa would cost a fotune to ship Inernationally. It would even be a hassel (and expensive) to ship locally!

E-bay gives you lots of buyers who may compete with each other. Trademe only gives you a handful and even then moving them safely is an issue with a heavy item.

Gibsaw wrote:.... what people consider to be the bargain in their collection (not always the cheapest).. For me, it may eventually turn out to be the Mac LC4/75 ($10)

I was lucky to get quite a few of my more exotic units donated to me. Of ones I paid for, most were at pretty much the going rate for their condition. The real bargin may have been the Atari 400. I can't remember exactly what I paid for this but it was between $30 and $50. I got it home, cleaned it up and everything worked perfectly. I'm on the lookout for it's big brother, the Atari 800.

I think the LEAST valuable item in my stash is the 120Mhz Pentium 1 (yes, it is only marginally vintage..I don't really consider it part of the official collection). I couldn't even give that away on Trade Me for $1.

As it is I've found a use for it. With a 360k 5.25 inch drive fitted and Windows 98/MS-DOS 6.2 dual boot, it now duplicates Kaypro, Osborne and TRS-80 Model 4 floppies when I need them from image files.

Probably any one of the Fountain Force 2 consoles that litter my garage.

I used to think it would be the ZX81s, but they're selling for real money now.

EDIT: I did pick up a mainly working Powerbook 100 for $4.50 recently. No-one else wanted it.

tezza wrote:I was lucky to get quite a few of my more exotic units donated to me. Of ones I paid for, most were at pretty much the going rate for their condition. The real bargin may have been the Atari 400. I can't remember exactly what I paid for this but it was between $30 and $50. I got it home, cleaned it up and everything worked perfectly. I'm on the lookout for it's big brother, the Atari 800.

looks like if one comes up on Trademe it will be a fight to get it then

Gibsaw wrote:The interesting question would be what people consider to be the bargain in their collection (not always the cheapest).. For me, it may eventually turn out to be the Mac LC4/75 ($10)

Oh snap. My LC575 and Performa 580CD cost me...
A six-pack of Beck's. Fair dinkum, I bid $1 on TradeMe then offered the guy a half dozen beers instead. He was most appreciative. Both work perfectly too!
Other bargains would be the A500s and the 520STFMs I got from YetiSeti, $1 per bundle if I recall correctly. And again, there were working units in both stacks. Score!

WelshWizard wrote:

tezza wrote: I'm on the lookout for it's big brother, the Atari 800.

looks like if one comes up on Trademe it will be a fight to get it then

Oh yeah, you're in for a good ol' scrap. I've been looking for one for 15 years